Look Out

•November 12, 2014 • Leave a Comment

We want to know when.  We kid ourselves that if only we knew when, we would be ready and prepared.  But would we?  Will we ever be ready for God’s return?

1 Thessalonians 5:1-11 (CEV)

5 I don’t need to write you about the time or date when all this will happen. 2 You surely know that the Lord’s return will be as a thief coming at night. 3 People will think they are safe and secure. But destruction will suddenly strike them like the pains of a woman about to give birth. And they won’t escape.

4 My dear friends, you don’t live in darkness, and so that day won’t surprise you like a thief. 5 You belong to the light and live in the day. We don’t live in the night or belong to the dark. 6 Others may sleep, but we should stay awake and be alert. 7 People sleep during the night, and some even get drunk. 8 But we belong to the day. So we must stay sober and let our faith and love be like a suit of armor. Our firm hope that we will be saved is our helmet.

9 God doesn’t intend to punish us, but wants us to be saved by our Lord Jesus Christ. 10 Christ died for us, so that we could live with him, whether we are alive or dead when he comes. 11 That’s why you must encourage and help each other, just as you are already doing.

This passage follows a similar theme to last weeks gospel reading.  Don’t sleep, stay awake.  It doesn’t mean physically, if it did I would be beyond all hope!

But we should be alert, spiritually aware.  And we should be watching – perhaps not just for ourselves, but watching for those who cannot watch for themselves.  When someone we know is in distress, we watch over them and we watch out for them. When I am asleep, I know that the wonderful Mr Pamsperambulation watches out. That’s an element of this watchfulness for God’s coming that I’ve never thought of before.

We won’t know when God is coming.  We won’t know when we will meet him.  It is a sad fact of life that sudden illness or accident can strike at any time.  If it happened to me today, am I ready?

God is not trying to catch us out, waiting until we’re doing something wrong to pounce.  He longs for us to live with him eternally.  And that means being spiritually aware, doing all we can to be ready to meet him – encouraging and helping one another along the way.

 Lord may I watch
and wait;
ready,
prepared,
living for you.

Give me patience,
stamina,
understanding,
compassion
and grace
that I may watch
and watch over
faithfully
for you

Posted in bible, faith, God, Jesus, Lectionary, Religion, theology
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Do Something (2nd Attempt)

•November 10, 2014 • Leave a Comment

(Sorry for previous posting of gibberish – never try to write posts on a phone in the middle of the night!)

This is another of those passages I’m tempted to leave well alone. But if we don’t struggle with such passages, how will we ever come to a deeper understanding of God and faith and so deepen our relationship with him? So here goes. Just some thoughts, feel free to join the conversation and grappling.  (Remembering that such passages are people also grappling with God, who he is and what he means – living in an entirely different time space to our own.)

How often do we long for God to do something in a situation? We cry out for him to act.

Yet if he did what was truly necessary would we be happy with his response?

This passage seems incredibly harsh, but is it what was really needed to sort an awful situation?

Zephaniah 1:7, 12-18  (GNT)

7 The day is near when the Lord will sit in judgment; so be silent in his presence. The Lord is preparing to sacrifice his people and has invited enemies to plunder Judah.

12 “At that time I will take a lamp and search Jerusalem. I will punish the people who are self-satisfied and confident, who say to themselves, ‘The Lord never does anything, one way or the other.’ 13 Their wealth will be looted and their houses destroyed. They will never live in the houses they are building or drink wine from the vineyards they are planting.”

14 The great day of the Lord is near—very near and coming fast! That day will be bitter, for even the bravest soldiers will cry out in despair! 15 It will be a day of fury, a day of trouble and distress, a day of ruin and destruction, a day of darkness and gloom, a black and cloudy day, 16 a day filled with the sound of war trumpets and the battle cry of soldiers attacking fortified cities and high towers.

17 The Lord says, “I will bring such disasters on the human race that everyone will grope about like someone blind. They have sinned against me, and now their blood will be poured out like water, and their dead bodies will lie rotting on the ground.”

18 On the day when the Lord shows his fury, not even all their silver and gold will save them. The whole earth will be destroyed by the fire of his anger. He will put an end—a sudden end—to everyone who lives on earth.

As per a discussion on twitter yesterday (Remembrance Sunday) sometimes something we perceive as awful has to happen to stop a bigger travesty.

 I wasn’t necc saying air strikes are wrong – fact that they’re needed is…

Is that how it is with God?  In order to sort one thing, is it necessary that what we perceive to be harsh action has to be taken?  If people were behaving the right way action wouldn’t have to be taken. If they (we) were doing the right thing, no one would be in any danger, because all would be good.

So if we don’t like the idea of God being angry and how that might look, perhaps the answer is in our own, individual and collective, hands.

Of course the other side of this for us that wasn’t true for Zephaniah, is that we live post-Jesus. He came and showed those of us that couldn’t, or wouldn’t, grasp what God had been saying all along what it physically, humanly, should be like. And he gives the possibility of making it alright and a new start if we choose to take it.

The anger and judgement of God displayed in an Old Testament understanding is perfectly understandable. I can see how that was perceived to be what needed to happen.

Thank God we have Jesus, who brings a different way, a fresh hope and a new way!

Lord I know
I get stuff wrong,
behave the wrong way,
say the wrong things,
forget about you,
overlook my fellow human,
sometimes just totally misunderstand.

For that
I deserve for action to be taken,
for there to be consequences.

Thank you for Jesus,
for new hope,
different possibilities,
life in you.

Help me Lord
to live in
and through him.

Posted in bible, faith, forgiveness, God, Good Friday, hope, Jesus, Lectionary, Religion, theology
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Be Prepared

•November 7, 2014 • 1 Comment

Are you the king of person who is prepared for every eventuality, or lives responding to life as it happens?    I find myself swinging much more from the former to the latter these day, whether that’s circumstance, experience or age I’m not sure. There are merits in both flexibility and being ready – until you get caught out!

Matthew 25:1-13 (CEV)

A Story about Ten Girls

25 The kingdom of heaven is like what happened one night when ten girls took their oil lamps and went to a wedding to meet the groom. 2 Five of the girls were foolish and five were wise. 3 The foolish ones took their lamps, but no extra oil. 4 The ones who were wise took along extra oil for their lamps.

5 The groom was late arriving, and the girls became drowsy and fell asleep. 6 Then in the middle of the night someone shouted, “Here’s the groom! Come to meet him!”

7 When the girls got up and started getting their lamps ready, 8 the foolish ones said to the others, “Let us have some of your oil! Our lamps are going out.”

9 The girls who were wise answered, “There’s not enough oil for all of us! Go and buy some for yourselves.”

10 While the foolish girls were on their way to get some oil, the groom arrived. The girls who were ready went into the wedding, and the doors were closed. 11 Later the other girls returned and shouted, “Sir, sir! Open the door for us!”

12 But the groom replied, “I don’t even know you!”

13 So, my disciples, always be ready! You don’t know the day or the time when all this will happen.

There we were.  Waiting for him to come.  The bridegroom.  Nothing could happen until he came.

It was a long wait I can tell you.  Don’t know what had held him up, but we were there, ready with our lamps to light his way, his arrival.  I’d taken extra fuel for my lamp.  I like to be prepared, ready for anything and everything.  These things often take longer than you think.  Four of the others had done the same – it takes a lot of light!  You need to be ready with an ongoing source.  Some of the others weren’t ready for such a long haul.  They had just the oil that had come in their lamps.

So they had to go and find some more.  Who knows where they were going to find it at that time of night.  Anywhere they could I suppose.  But they weren’t going to last the wait without an extra supply.  The awkward bit is that whilst they were gone, the groom came.  Their moment of waiting was over and they missed it.  They were needed with their light, and they weren’t there.  We had to go with him.  This is what we’d been waiting for, the whole reason for the vigil.  To have waited for the others would have been to let the groom down – he already only had half the light he should.

When the others came back they were too late.  Their not having enough oil to last had cost them their entry.

The Scouts aren’t wrong with their motto.

Lord,
you ask me to be ready,
prepared for when you need me,
ready for when you come.

May my resources not run low,
may I keep supplies topped up,
may I remain in you,
my strength,
my light,
my power.

And when you come
may I be ready
and not caught napping.

Posted in bible, faith, God, Jesus, Lectionary, Religion, theology
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